A serial sex offender who began preying on victims when he was an underage boy has been jailed for seven years.

Steven Fergusson went on to commit crimes of rape, indecency and assault in a catalogue of abuse that took place at various locations in Renfrewshire and spanned more than two decades.

He had denied a series of charges at an earlier trial but was convicted of a total of 18 offences.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that 39-year-old Fergusson, formerly of Houston Street, Renfrew, has a limited record of previous offending and continued to deny the offences against nine females.

A judge told Fergusson that, due to the gravity of his behaviour, he will be on licence and under supervision for a further four years.

Judge Thomas Welsh KC said that licence period was necessary to protect the public from serious harm.

Offenders who breach licence conditions after being released can be returned to prison.

Fergusson first preyed on a girl, who was aged seven or eight at the time, at a wooded area in Erskine on an occasion between August 1995 and August 1997.

He restrained the child by holding onto her ankle before pulling down her underwear and molesting her.

Fergusson went on to target another girl in the Erskine area in 1999 and 2000. She was subjected to a rape attack by him at a house when he seized her wrist and held her on a bed.

He also made heavy breathing phone calls to the girl and played loud music down the phone line.

Fergusson raped another girl, who was 13 at the time, in January 2000 in a car in a garage in Erskine after restraining her.

He later raped her a second time at a grassy area in the town after pushing her against a fence. He also played loud music down the phone to her.

Also in 2000, a woman was subjected to assaults by him at locations in Paisley and Erskine as he grabbed her throat and pushed her against a bus stop.

Another two teenage girls were molested by Fergusson in 2000 and 2001 at locations in Erskine.

He went on to assault and rape another woman in the town between 2012 and 2014 and destroyed some of her possessions.

Fergusson subjected a further woman to rape on an occasion in February 2019 at another address in Erskine.

He was remanded in custody at the end of his trial last month and the court heard it was his first experience of prison.

Fergusson, who watched today's sentencing proceedings via a TV link to prison, was told he would be placed on the Sex Offenders Register indefinitely.